TWO-DIMENSIONAL FINITE ELEMENT MODEL OF TEMPERATURE DISTRIBUTION IN DERMAL TISSUES OF EXTENDED SPHERICAL ORGANS OF A HUMAN BODY

Abstract

In the present study the thermal model of skin and subdermal tissues (SST) of human breast have been developed. The human breast is assumed to be spherical in shape with upper hemisphere projecting out from the trunk of the body and lower hemisphere is considered to be a part of the body core. The upper hemisphere represents the breast and its SST region is divided into three layers namely epidermis, dermis and subdermal tissues. The inner part of the breast represents the core/shell of the breast. The outer surface of the breast is assumed to be exposed to the environment from where the heat loss takes place by conduction, convection, radiation and evaporation. The heat transfer from core to the surface takes place by thermal conduction and blood perfusion. Also metabolic activity takes place at different rates in different SST layers of the breast. Boundary conditions have been framed on the basis of physical conditions. A finite element model has been developed for a two-dimensional steady state case.